Taylor Swift’s Literary References Before ‘The Tortured Poets Department’

Before The Tortured Poets Department was ever a glimmer in Taylor Swift’s eye, the singer peppered her music with references to classic literature.

As early as 2006, Swift included a nod to Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” in the song “The Outside” from her self-titled debut album. “I tried to take the road less traveled by,” she sang. “But nothing seems to work the first few times, am I right?”

The lines were the first of many literary references to come, with Swift later folding in allusions to works by authors including Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Perhaps most famously, her Fearless single “Love Story” borrows from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. In 2010, Swift said that studying the play in ninth grade partially inspired the track.

“A lot of people who gravitate toward music are really, really sort of drawn to poetry because the words all have a rhythm and it comes together just right,” she said during a talk at Scholastic headquarters. “I love poetry, because if you get it right, if you put the right rhymes at the right ends of the sentences, you can almost make words bounce off a page.”

Keep reading for a complete, alphabetical guide to all of the literary references in Swift’s discography:

‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’

Swift’s first tribute to Lewis Carroll’s beloved children’s book came in 2014 on 1989 via the bonus track “Wonderland.” In the song, the narrator and her lover fall “down a rabbit hole” and get lost in a “wonderland” together. “Didn’t you calm my fears with a Cheshire Cat smile?” she sings at one point.

Swift revisited Carroll’s work on “Long Story Short” from 2020’s Evermore with the line, “I fell from the pedestal, right down the rabbit hole.”

‘All’s Well That Ends Well’

Shakespeare’s comedy gets a quick nod in “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” from Red (Taylor’s Version), which dropped in 2021. Swift begins the fourth verse with the lines, “They say all’s well that ends well, but I’m in a new hell / Every time you double-cross my mind.”

She previously referenced the play on “Lover” from the 2019 album of the same name, singing, “All’s well that ends well to end up with you.”

The Bible

“Now That We Don’t Talk” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version), released in 2023, includes an allusion to a Bible story from the book of Exodus. “You part the crowd like the Red Sea, don’t even get me started,” Swift sings, referencing Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt.

‘Compassion’

In the song “Ivy” from 2020’s Evermore, Swift borrows a line from Miller Williams’ poem “Compassion,” published in 1997. “I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones,” she sings in the first verse. Williams’ poem, meanwhile, reads, “You do not know what wars are going on down there where the spirit meets the bone.”

‘The Great Gatsby’

Swift made her first reference to the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel on “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” from 2017’s Reputation with the lyric, “Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year.” As former high school students may recall, titular character Jay Gatsby (a.k.a. Jimmy Gatz) is famous for throwing lavish parties that hide his shady background.

Three years later, Swift nodded to the book again in “Happiness” from Evermore. The lyric, “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool who takes my spot next to you” is a play on the character Daisy’s remark that she hopes her daughter will be a “beautiful little fool,” while the line, “All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness” recalls the book’s famous green light, which symbolized the unattainable nature of Gatsby’s dreams.

‘Humpty Dumpty’

“The Archer” from Lover quotes the classic nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” with the lyrics, “All the king’s horses, all the king’s men / Couldn’t put me together again.”

‘The Iliad’

1989 bonus track “You Are in Love” includes an oblique reference to The Iliad in the line, “And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars.” While it’s not explicit, this seems to be a nod to the mythological Trojan War, where the Greeks and the Trojans fought over Paris taking Helen from her husband, Menelaus, the king of Sparta.

“State of Grace” from Red includes an allusion to Achilles, a hero of the Trojan War, with the lyric, “These are the hands of fate, you’re my Achilles heel.” Homer’s Iliad, however, makes no mention of Achilles having a weakness in his heel.

King Midas

Swift is apparently something of a mythology buff because “Champagne Problems” features a reference to King Midas, who could turn anything to gold by touching it. Swift mentions the mythological royal while describing a character in the song, singing, “Your Midas touch on the Chevy door.”

‘One for the Money’

“Champagne Problems” also includes a nod to the classic children’s rhyme “One for the Money,” which has been around since the 19th century. Swift’s lyrics read, “One for the money, two for the show / I never was ready, so I watch you go.”

Peter Pan

On the Folklore track “Cardigan,” Swift references the fictional character created by J.M. Barrie. At one point, she names Peter directly, saying, “Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy.” Later in the track, she discusses “chasin’ shadows in the grocery line,” which seems to be an allusion to the way Peter chases his own shadow while visiting the Darling children.

The Red Thread of Fate

“Invisible String” draws inspiration from the idea of the red thread of fate, a concept from East Asian mythology. The red thread of fate is an invisible cord tied around the fingers of people who are destined to meet. In the Chinese version of the tale, Yue Lao, the god of marriage and love, is in charge of binding people with the red thread.

Robert Frost

Swift has not but three songs that include nods to Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” The first came on “The Outside” from her 2006 debut album when she sang, “I tried to take the road less traveled by, but nothing seems to work the first few times, am I right?”

She then quoted the same line on “Illicit Affairs” from Folklore, singing, “Take the road less traveled by, tell yourself you can always stop.” The road appears one more time on “‘Tis the Damn Season” from Evermore in the lyric, “And the road not taken looks real good now.”

‘Romeo and Juliet’

Swift’s most famous literary reference came in “Love Story” from 2008’s Fearless, where the narrator is Juliet to her love interest’s Romeo. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragedy, this version has a happy ending, with Romeo getting permission from Juliet’s dad to marry her. The song ends with the proposal, but presumably Dad’s approval means they don’t have to fake their own deaths to tie the knot.

‘The Scarlet Letter’

Swift has two references to Hawthorne’s 1850 novel in her discography. The first came in “Love Story” with the lyric, “Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter.”

The second came in 2014 on the 1989 bonus track “New Romantics,” which includes the line, “We show off our different scarlet letters, trust me, mine is better.”

For a little high school English class refresher: The Scarlet Letter is about a woman named Hester Prynne who must wear a red “A” after she conceives a child out of wedlock. (The “A” is for adultery.)

‘Slaughterhouse-Five’

In addition to having a song titled “So It Goes” on Reputation, Swift uses the phrase in both “Style” and “You Are in Love” from 1989. It’s not clear whether she’s intentionally referencing Kurt Vonnegut in any of these tracks, but “so it goes” is an oft-repeated line in the author’s 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.

‘Snow White’

Swift references the Brothers Grimm fairy tale in “The Best Day” from Fearless. “Don’t know if Snow White’s house is near or far away,” she sings. “But I know I had the best day with you today.”

Later in the track, she nods to Snow White’s companions when she says, “It’s the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs.”

‘A Tale of Two Cities’

The opening line of “Getaway Car” from Reputation is a play on the opening line of Dickens’ 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Swift’s version reads, “It was the best of times, the worst of crimes,” while the Dickens quote begins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

William Wordsworth

Years before announcing The Tortured Poets Department, Swift nodded to the Romantic poet in her Folklore bonus track “The Lakes.” The song includes a pun on Wordsworth’s name in the lyric, “I’ve come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze tell me what are my words worth.”

In the chorus, she sings, “Take me to the Lakes, where all the poets went to die.” Wordsworth, who frequently wrote about England’s Lake District, died at his home in the area in 1850 and was buried at St Oswald’s Church in Grasmere.